{The Floating Bard [continued]}[8th November 1990]

[Redbook8:106-107][19901108:2233b]{The Floating Bard [continued]}[8th November 1990]

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[continued]

‘In the great age of Classical Greece and, later, of Rome, the artist lost some of his legendary quality as seer, but he gained considerably in the area of social acceptance.’

‘Sophocles, in the fifth century before Christ, was no blind beggar but a respected citizen, a soldier and politician, as well as a tragic poet. Above all, the intellectual role of the writer was recognised and his claim to respect was validated by the celebrated dictum of Aristotle that poetry is more philosophical than history. Aristotle’s defence of poetry was perhaps a deliberate response to the celebrated attack by Plato in “The Republic” on the creative artist as a potential threat to the stability of the state.’

*

* – ibid, [Encyclopaedia Britannica 14:] 111-112

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